Leaderboard Zone

Among the analysts still covering the internet after the great wipe out of 2001, Safa Rashtchy, of Piper Jaffray, has received the most notice as an early and ardent supporter of search. His company will soon come out with a new report forecasting online advertising revenues (Safa is credited with pegging the paid search segment of the market at a widely reported figure of nearly $7 billion by 2007). In his recent newsletter, which summarizes a conference Piper hosted on online advertising, Safa predicts revenues will sharply accelerate, to more than $15 billion by 2008. Also, he predicts that online ad revenues will match 2000’s number of $8.1 billion – the height of the boom – by next year. My guess: he’s wrong – when the counting’s done, 2004 will beat 2000 by a comfortable margin.